


FROZEN

by meikahidenori



Series: Thunderbirds are go AU [8]
Category: thunderbirds are go
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 14:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7365949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meikahidenori/pseuds/meikahidenori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thunderbird 2 crashes in the mountains of Russia in a blizzard, and Virgil trying to prevent his brother Gordon from freezing to death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	FROZEN

**Author's Note:**

> ( ages: Alan 17, Gordon 23, Virgil 24, John 26 and Scott 27, Kayo 20)

“That, was hell.” Gordon groaned as he plonked down in his seat on thunderbird two. He had just reboarded after being fished out of the Arctic Ocean in Thunderbird four. He had been busy trying to free a Russian underwater research laboratory from being stuck beneath an underwater glacier shelf. He usually didn’t mind the cold as his scuba suit was rather insulated, but this was more than just a small bucket of ice, it stung like knives into his skin as if someone had the forethought of stabbing him repeatedly on a night out in the city. “Who in this day and age still speaks languages other than english?” he grunted.

“Not my fault the only words you ever learned to speak was ‘legkovernyye duraki.’” Virgil flicked a few switches from his main control panel in front of him. “What do they mean anyway?”

Gordon just poked out his tongue. Telling his older brother would spoil his fun and he didn’t want that. “Oh nothing important.” he shivered. “Could you turn the heating up in here? I can’t feel my toes.”

“You know you could put on a spare suit to warm up Gords.” Virgil rolled his eyes. He was careful not to remove his attention off trying to give the big ‘bird height into the air.

“I’m not wearing that.” Gordon pouted. “It’s looks horrible, what was Brain’s thinking redesigning our gear for?”

“Let’s see, it’s because all our gear happens to be out of date. He had to reinstall new giga counters, heart rate monitors and make it so that we cannot turn off the holographic communications. Scott was insistent on that part since Kayo keeps turning hers off and acts like it’s an accident.”

“Well she is special operations and Global Defence Force liaison.”

“That’s beside the point. Even Alan and John have new gear.”

“Pfft, have you seen it? Ok sure it’s only because Scott was instant on making them back up pilots after the fiasco with the Hood and the world wide war threat a few months ago when we had the need for extra pilots, but really when are they ever going to use them? I notice you're not wearing yours either Virge.”

Virgil shook his head and pulled the levers for the rear engines. “Just because my suit is still blue and not bright orange doesn’t mean I’m not wearing mine. Brains updates mine quite often for your information Gords, he has to since it has to deal with a lot of extra weight and various conditions, unlike yours which just needs to protect you from high pressured environments and keep you warm and toasty.”

“Yeah, sure Virge, I’m gonna buy that load of crapola for a second.”

“You're just cranky you’ve been stuck under the sea in the cold for over a week. You’ll get over it.”

Gordon shivered again. Maybe that horrendous orange abomination was better than freezing his arse off afterall. Once he could feel Thunderbird two level out ready to fly back home he stood back up and headed back into the hold to see if he could drag up the spare suit that made him stand out for miles around.

“Thunderbird five, what’s the weather situation? We seem to be getting buffeted by a great deal of snow here.” Virgil tried using the communication relays only to get a large hiss of static. “I hate snow.” he mumbled. Things like snow storms and tornadoes messed with the craft’s instruments a great deal and having to rely on the space station was a pain in the arse if he couldn’t get any signal through.

“Thunderbird five, this is Thunderbird two can you hear me John or Alan?” he remembered to add his little brother’s name as lately the seventeen year old was learning how to operate the space station in his spare time. In one way Virgil approved of this back up training arrangement as there had been various occasions where they have had to rescue each other out of stricken craft or out of places that left them laid up in bed for weeks at a time and they still needed another person to operate rescue craft. So far, Only Scott knew how to pilot his’ bird as well and Virgil had been rather impressed with the results.

While he tried to get into contact with the higher communications, Gordon was hunting around for the spare suit, without much luck.

“Where’d you put it Virgil?”

“It’s where it should be Gords, in the metal trunk near the medical supplies and the medi-beds.” Virgil's voice replied over the inboard coms. “Darn it, still no signal from Thunderbird five. Guess we’re just going to have to wing it.”

Gordon found the trunk he was looking for around behind his bright yellow thunderbird. He patted the submarine as he walked around it and then was thrown into the side of it and stumbled across the internal hangar bay until he hit the opposite wall.

“What the heck are you playing at Virgil? I thought you had things under control up there?”

“Sorry Gordon, we seem to have flown right into a storm. The wind is pretty fierce and I’m struggling to keep us stable in the air.”

“Well then get it back under control, surely it can’t be that hard?”

“It’s not that simple, once snow gets into the engines we’re going to plummet like a rock out of the sky!”

The whole craft shifted violently again and Gordon was face first against the submarine. Thank goodness Thunderbird four was firmly stuck on guide rails otherwise he would have been flattened under it.

“Darn it! I’ve lost the left engine! Switching to thruster jets!”

Gordon could feel the bottom of Thunderbird two vibrate beneath his feet as the jets on the underside of the craft were fired, however because only one side had warmed up properly on take off, the whole craft rolled on it’s side and then the wind decided that the green thunderbird had to finally come down. Gordon grabbed a hold of the submarine but the force was too strong for him to stay put, flinging him to the other side of the hold where he heard the distinct sound of his shoulder being crumpled under his own weight.

“Thunderbird five, this is Thunderbird two, do you copy? We have to make an emergency crash landing, I don’t have a clue where we are, our systems can’t get a fixed satellite reading!” Virgil thumped the control panel with his fists as the holographic screen in front of him flickered. “I repeat, we have to make an emergency landing!”

The big green Thunderbird was tossed around by the wind until the side of it had caught onto a low mountainside and started to slide down it out of control until the nose was buried deep into the snow. The blizzard outside raged harder and wind whipped the stricken craft as it buried it beneath a layer of frozen ice.

***

“Ok John, try it now.”

John taped a few keys on the holographic interface and frowned. “It’s still giving me nothing Brains.”

“This is extremely bad, we need to get those communications back up with Thunderbird two.” Brains slid back under the coffee table which had wires out all over the floor.

“You’re telling me. I’m only down here because I thought I’d get a better signal from ground level.”

“Pass me that socket wrench would you Alan?” Brain’s held out a hand from under the table. Alan who was sitting by Brains’s toolkit, passed it over. Both he and John had made the trip down from Thunderbird five after spending the past two hours trying to get a fix on their brother’s location without much success. They had pulled everything up there to pieces and still nothing. They lost contact not long after Virgil passed the Russian- Ukraine border on his way to retrieve Gordon in Thunderbird four. Two hours is a long time not to have contact with the large aircraft and even getting a locational fix on them was near impossible due to the weather that was brewing in that vicinity. It was Alan’s idea that they should try from home base.

“How about now?”

There was a few blips and a bright red flashing error message. “Damn it!” John hissed. “This isn’t working either!” John opened several more holoscreens and glared at the code. “How in the earth can we lose an aircraft with so many satellites and global positioning units?”

“EOS got anything?” Alan asked  
John took off his head set that was designed for ground level contact with Thunderbird five and passed them over. Alan liked them, they were like a funky little pair of spiky gaming headphones.. He put them on and wasn’t too impressed that all he could hear was static. “I’m guessing we have no contact with her either.”

“Tap the button on the left-side.”

Alan did so and Eos’s voice came online.

“Have you found anything up there Eos?”

“Negative Alan. I’ve scoured all the satellite data around the Arctic ocean and still cannot get a fix or a distress signal.”

“No distress signal is a good thing though right?”

“Let’s hope so.”

Kayo walked into the living room, still dressed in her gear. She had just come back from doing a security run around the Island.

“How’s it going?” she asked.

“Terribly.” Alan replied. “Anything could have happened to them.”

“Or they could be on their way back right now.” John added. “Either way we can’t tell. Everything in that area is completely dead. We’ve had a massive black spot there since the weather started to move in.”

“It’s been over two hours now.” Alan sounded rather worried.

“We also can’t send anyone out there to have a look, it’s far too dangerous.”

“Have you contacted Scott?”

“He’s on his way back now Kayo. He thinks he might need to send us all out to find them if we can’t get fix.” Alan handed the headset back to John.

“With what though? If what you told me before I landed was true, then we don’t have any craft stable enough to brave the blizzard, let alone take a pounding from it.” Kayo frowned.

“Oh I’m sure Scott will think of something. He always does.” Alan sounded forever hopeful.

***

Virgil felt around himself until he could pull himself upright against the main control panel of Thunderbird two. He had been thrown from his seat and hard against the controls until he hit the floor. Regaining consciousness from his new found position was not something he had in mind today.

There was blood trailing down his jaw, possibly from when his face had hit the control levers for the rocket engines. All he could taste was the salty warm icky substance in his mouth. Quite possibly he only had bit his tongue, worse case scenario he had damaged something inside his jaw. He managed to get himself into a standing position and looked out the view ports of the craft. There was nothing but a huge wall of white.

Virgil pulled a few leavers and pressed a few buttons to see if he could get any power. Nothing. Not even the internal lighting systems, which meant the heating was down too. Just what they needed. He took a deep breath and could see his exhaled air hang in the cold.

He better see if Gordon was ok.

***

“Any luck?”

“Sorry Scott, we’ve tried everything. The only other possible way we could get a fix it to fly into it ourselves.” John had a window up on the holoscreen that was using satellites to try and find the craft. Thunderbird two had a unique signature tagged to it that could only be picked up by their own networks so they couldn’t be confused with any other plane and their flight paths. If the Thunderbird was down and unable to send any distress call, this was the only way they could pick it up. The only downside to this system was that they had to be within a 400 km range.

“I just hope they haven't gotten brought down by the storm.” Scott paced around the livingroom floor.

“There’s a high chance they might have been. Thunderbird two does have a few problems aerodynamically when it comes to weather conditions being worse than the usual fair. It’s a wallowing walrus of a thing in a tight spot, and no matter what I seem to try I can’t design it any better.”

“That’s not your fault Brains. It’s a transport vehicle mostly so it’s not really a surprise that it can be thrown around alot.” Kayo tried to reassure the engineer.

“Right then it’s settled, we’re going out there on a retrieval mission. We’re going to find them and get them out.”

“One problem Scott.” Alan scratched his nose. “We don’t have anything that can lift the damn thing. The only way we can retrieve the craft is to wait and call on the Global Defence Force.”

“And that could take days in that weather. They would not be able to hold out that long.”

“We’ll just have to bite the bullet and get Virgil and Gordon out then. We can always go back later with the GDF and grab the ‘bird and fix her up back at their airfield to fly her back home.”  
“Is there much of an option?” Kayo looked at all of their faces, hoping someone would prove her wrong and have another idea.

“Sadly no.” John exhaled heavily. “What else can we do?”

“Right, that settles it then!” Scott clasped his hands together, “Everyone suit up and meet up in Thunderbird one’s hanger. Make sure it’s the thermal gear I don’t want to be treating extra people for frostbite when we get there.” he pointed at Alan. “Get the extra medical kit and the extra blankets and anything else you think we might need.”

“Grab some packet soup while you're at it.” John jumped in. Scott gave him a strange look. “When we have them warm enough we can give it to them to heat them up alot more and starve off the cold.”

“Fine, better than hot water bottles which we can’t take at anyrate.” Scott agreed. “I also want you two in your new uniforms.”

This got a groan out of both younger brother’s respectfully.

“Don’t give me that, both of you have gear that’s similar to Gordon's to keep out the cold.”

“But black? Honestly?

“Better than neon green.” Alan had a look of disgust on his face.

“I’m sorry I havn’t found the right materials to make all of them blue.”

“It’s ok Brains, we’re just not used to your choices yet.” John hesitated and tried to be a nice as he could.

“Anyway, let’s move out already!” he pointed to Kayo and indicated her to move along and help Alan.

Scott placed a hand on John’s shoulder as the taller brother started to head out with them. “I’m going to need you to do me a solid, John.”

“Oh? Isn’t setting up a locator on Thunderbird one enough? You’re honestly not going to use me to get them on board the vessel. I’m just medical support for this one right?”

“Wrong. If we have to bring Virgil up it’s going to take two of us, so I need a steady hand in the pilot’s seat as there is no way we can control one remotely in the blizzard.”

“You’re not suggesting-”

“Of course not. I’m asking directly.”

John sighed. “Fine, but don’t get angry if I scratch the precious paint work.”

“Think of it like this, Gordon and Virgil do tell you to get that wild side out of your system once in awhile.”

“I don’t think this is what they had in mind, Scott.”

“Whatever, Just get your arse in the damn control seat John.”

***

The main hold of Thunderbird two was a mess. Boxes, machine parts and heavy equipment was strewn everywhere. The only thing that had not moved was Thunderbird four, however the way Thunderbird two was tilted, was only going to be for a matter of time. All it needed to do was slip slightly off its rail connection and the extra weight would flip the bigger Thunderbird onto it’s roof. Virgil scrambled his way along the tilted floor, grabbing onto loose cables, mechanical grabbing arms and even the side of the bright yellow Thunderbird till he could get himself into a position where he could see where Gordon was.

His brother was lying awkwardly against the side of the hold, unmoving. He was wedged behind the large storage box they kept the spare suits in for emergencies. Virgil had to get down there without rocking the hull of the aircraft and wasn’t sure how to go about it. Steam spluttered from a side vent too close to his little brother’s head for Virgil’s liking so he resolved in trying to slide his way down, using the yellow Thunderbird for purchase and then carefully drop down beside his sibling.

He moved the box aside with ease, however heavy things were never a problem for the strongest and the most broad set of the Tracy clan and could clearly see where Gordon had held out his arms to protect himself from the oncoming impact. Nothing appeared to be broken apart from his left wrist, though Virgil was certain it might be sprained. There was something more pressing than treating injuries right now however.

Gordon still had not managed to get out of his wet scuba suit. Touching his skin was like touching something dead. His brother was very much alive, but the cold air had made his wet skin clammy enough to mistaken for him being life extinct.

Virgil checked Gordon’s vital signs, his breathing was laboured and had slowed right down, the read out from his suit put his body temperature at around 32 degrees. Second stage Hypothermia. The biggest concern was that he was past the point of his own body trying to keep himself warm, his body must have stopped shivering when Virgil had just managed to get into the back of the hold.

Virgil had to get his temperature up.

Rummaging through the box he moved off Gordon revealed the spare suit, Virgil’s own spare suit and a few blankets. There was possibly more things around the Thunderbird somewhere he could use to keep his brother warm, but he’d have to go looking for them after he got his brother dry and out of his clothes. Stripping Gordon bare was not an easy task, the already tight suit sticking to his body left red marks all across his brother’s skin, the suit had already started to get its own layer of frost. He patted him dry as best as he could, re-checked his breathing and pulse before wrestling to get him into the other suit which was just as tight as the previous one, but alot thicker than what he had. He clicked a few buttons on the suit’s computer system that was attached to the arm that gave vital signs and his core temperature and Virgil hissed as he noticed that it had dropped a few more degrees. That was not supposed to happen, any further Gordon was going to end up dead. He pulled on the second suit that was designed to fit himself, it was alot easier than the first one, as Virgil’s girth was alot bigger and there was more room to maneuver his sibling’s limbs around without adding more bruising and injuries to his person. The upside to the cold was that it was taking a long time for injuries to become apparent, though Virgil wasn’t really counting on that being the case for too long.

He would have wrapped him up in the blankets and then gone hunting for the other things on board that he would normally use for this sort of condition if the hull of the aircraft wasn’t becoming freezing cold underneath them. He had to find somewhere that would be able to keep them reasonably insulated from the outside.

He looked back at the submarine. Maybe something inside there would be able to generate heat?

***

“HAHAHA!” Alan burst out laughing. “You look ridiculous!”

“You can’t talk, you sour lime.” John shot his brother a glance over his shoulder. Sitting up front of Thunderbird one in the main control seat made it hard to tolerate backseat drivers.

“Is that the best you got?”

“Knock it off you two.” Scott clicked himself into place for take off. He had been double checking the gear to make sure they had all the right equipment for extraction and anything else that could be of use like laser cutters incase they had to deal with machinery and metal obstructing them on their mission.

“Why are you not piloting this thing?” Kayo asked a little bit confused, she was sitting in the seat beside Alan and was wondering why Scott was handing over the controls of his beautiful rocket jet to his less experienced sibling.

“Because when we finally get there you need me to come down with you and in the blizzard we can’t remotely control Thunderbird one if it looses control. Last thing was need to do is get all of us stuck out there. This way, it’s fully under someone’s control, even if it is John.”

“Ye of little faith.” John grumbled, rolling his eyes. He engaged the holoscreen that was central in controlling the craft and it’s main view of the world outside. At the same time he added an extra few lines of code and opened up another two holographic projection screens to either side of him, one that had links back to Thunderbird five back in space and it’s global positioning systems and the other was a remote scanning system that had been installed on thunderbird one for close range scanning, something that would make spotting Thunderbird two’s unique signature far more easier to spot.  
Scott smiled. He knew that the extra communications channels could only be activated on each craft by either John or Brains and also other functions that the others had still struggled to learn to use. To see them in action was something to behold.

“You could have at least asked me to fly this thing. My stealth jet isn’t much different to Thunderbird one.” Kayo shot Scott a disappointed glare.

“Next time.” Scott lied. He had seen first hand how reckless Kayo was in Thunderbird shadow and there was no way he’d let her behind the controls of his ‘bird. Over his dead body wasn’t even the extent to how much that option was ever going to come up. He’d give Alan control over it before she was allowed to… and that was only if he was left with no other option.

“Ok Brains, we’re ready for launch.”

“Copy that Thunderbird one, Good luck and bring them home.”

“F.A.B.” John replied as the pre-flight checks were made as the rocket was moved into position ready for launch. The roof of the hanger moved open and John engaged the engines, the rocket jet firing out of the hanger and out of where the pool outside would usually have been if it hadn’t been programed to move out of the way.

“Ok, switching to horizontal flight, hang on tight back there!” the rocket jet leveled out and then flashed off into the direction of Thunderbird two’s last known location in the northern hemisphere at 343.2 metres per second.

***

Virgil gripped one foot onto a loose cable and the other inside the back of Thunderbird four and pulled Gordon upwards towards him and into the backend of the submarine. Gordon’s temperature had come back up to 34 degrees, but it still wasn’t good enough. Virgil slammed his hand against the big buzzer switch that made the back of the submarine close it’s doors around them sealing them off from most of the cold. Virgil knew he’d have to clamber back out there again, but for now it would have to do. He made sure his brother was comfortable before clambering into the small seat Gordon usually sat in and stared at the control panel of the craft.

Great, where the hell was Alan when he needed him? The controls for the submarine were similar to those on the spaceship he flew with a few major differences, most of which were defunct when not underwater. At least the kid would have been able to figure out how to get any sort of heating going onboard. Virgil flipped several switches and had a small glimmer of hope when he managed to get the internal lighting system on. He pushed every button that didn’t look like it would start the craft and when the ship's heating systems shuddered into life, Virgil slunk back into the seat relieved that he finally found it. It might hold out for a little while, but if it started to get too cold then he wasn’t sure how long his victory would last. Hopefully, being inside the bigger Thunderbird insulated it from the worst of the elements.

Checking on Gordon again, this time his sibling had some colour in his features. That was a good sign, however he didn’t want to warm him up too fast, otherwise he’d send his brother into shock which could be far worse than the initial hypothermia. Freezing to death was one thing, dying from a preventable cardiac arrhythmia was another story. Virgil did not have any equipment onboard to prevent that, as he was only equipped for a routine pick up flight.

He clambered out the rear of the submarine again, got a good foothold against it and climbed back around the side of the hull to see if he could locate the thermal blankets he knew should have been on board somewhere. He started to shiver and it dawned on him he had to move alot faster to prevent himself from becoming like Gordon. If he did, everything would have been for nothing.

He reached the medical supplies he did have onboard, stashed away in a compartment in the side of the hull and swore as everything fell out of it, landing back on the other side of the internal hanger. Luckily, the blankets he wanted had landed on the side of Thunderbird four so crawling down to grab them before going back into the submarine wasn’t as big a chore as it would have been.

He secured one around his brother and then made his way into the cockpit of the submarine and looked at the controls again. There had to be an emergency signal onboard somewhere, and a way to route any extra unused power from Thunderbird two into the littler craft. Afterall, Gordon had done it once before to stop them both plummeting to their deaths from a pod, so it had to be possible. He wished he had taken the extra training that Scott told him to take in operating some of the other crafts. Virgil had plenty of experience in the pods and other heavy machinery they usually had to transport around, but he never considered how vastly different they would be to the controls of Thunderbird four. Even Alan knew how to control it and he only ever flew a spaceship…. And John, bloody John programed them all for Brains so he knew how they worked too.

If he could get a signal out, maybe he could get in contact with either of them and they could talk him through it?

He knew that the only way he could do that was to see if he could get some power back into Thunderbird two. He rubbed his arms again for warmth and blew into his hands. He had to risk it.

***

“Hold her steady and level John.”

“I’m trying Scott. I’ve never flown this thing into a storm before. Around the island sure, no problem…. But into a blizzard?”

“First time for everything.”

“Don’t tease the pilot Scott.” Kayo cautioned. “I’d like to get Virgil and Gordon out alive along with the rest of us if I can help it.”

“Yeah, besides, poking John with a proverbial stick will get you into alot of trouble.”

“Oh shut up Alan, you’re not helping!”

***

Virgil collapsed into the main pilot seat of Thunderbird two and tried to get his breath back. The cold air was affecting his breathing, just inhaling air was painful. Normally he wasn’t bothered by moving around alot, his job usually required a high level of maneuverability, but the cold had seeped deep into his muscle tissue and was constricting the blood flow that normally flowed into them making movement increasingly hard.

“Ok… need… a… sig…” he mumbled, trying to get his hands to work, pulling off the cover of the communications panel, and letting it hit the floor with a thunk of metal on metal. Machines and mechanical engineering was where he felt right at home, however he never thought he’d be doing it while being extremely light headed and dizzy. It was like being drunk, but without the happy side effects. Fingers failed to grasp wires after three attempts, and even trying to reconnect them into the main relay was proving difficult.

Now how did that old code go?

***

John glanced at the holoscreen that was scanning the surroundings as now the thunderbird was flying blind, the snow whipping it from every direction and his concentration for other things was becoming severely limited.

“Alan, going to flick the holo screen to you, I think we got something pingning it.”

“F.A.B.” Alan nodded as a screen flicked to life in front of his own seat of the scanner screen. Alan had only just been learning how to understand some of the more technical side of operating some of the communication systems on board Thunderbird five and the system that John had set up on Thunderbird one was no different to that of the space station. Scott leaned over trying to work it out himself. Complicated systems he didn’t understand always fascinated him, it was one of the few times he could openly admit his brothers were far smarter than he was without any shame attached.

“Your bang on the money, we have a signal.” Alan tapped the screen and made the signal location larger. “You want to go two degrees to your left and fifteen to polar north. Keep her at this height, there’s a mountain range just below and we can’t afford to hit it.”

“F.A.B.”

“That signal keep beeping in an odd pattern.” Kayo pointed it out, as it had been starting to bother her.

“It’s morse code. One of them must have set up an electronic pulse signal, which means normal communications must be dead.” Alan answered, watching the beeping marker. “I can’t quite make any sense of it though, I think parts are missing as it’s all jumbled.”

Scott had been mouthing the beeps along too. Morse code was something their father insisted they all learn as a large majority of places they have had to perform rescues had it as a standard requirement before engaging in dangerous activities. It was also something Scott excelled at in at his time in the Air force.

“It’s them,” He said pretty sure of himself. “ It’s broken, but it’s them. ‘Thunderbird… no power… heat from ….losing to cold….’”

“Right then let’s get them the hell out of there.” John pulled back on the thrusters and engaged the jets on the underside of Thunderbird one to turn her and keep her in a hover. The others started to unstrap themselves and start getting into harnesses and getting stretchers ready. They were in no doubt that they were going to need them.

***

Virgil had pulled his hands back under his armpits, his fingers were red from the heat loss, having changed from bluish purple in the cold. His body had also stopped shivering, which to him was sounding alarm bells and that he really should get back into the little bit of warmth that was inside Thunderbird four. He had to get back down there and there was no way his body was going to make it that trip anymore. He tried to get out of the seat, only to stumble and collapse on the metal grating of the cockpit, the chilling steel adding to the pain he was feeling all over from frostbite. He was struggling to breath now, ever draw of air more vicious than the last. He needed to stay awake, he had to get moving. He managed to drag himself to the rear seats before his arms gave out, leaving him to lay there waiting for the world to tell him it was time to turn the lights out.

***

Scott unclipped his harness, he was the last to do so on top of the huge green thunderbird as he carried the heavy laser cutter they needed to get inside. Kayo was scanning for life signs, and Alan breathed on his hands to try and keep himself warm. He was carrying the spare blankets and the portable stretcher, hoping that they will only need the blankets. Above them, thunderbird one was fighting to stay steady in the onslaught of snow.

Scott had started cutting a hole that was big enough to get into the side of the craft, large enough to pull someone out flat. Sparks flew and fizzled out in the snow as the laser cutter did it’s job and made the paneling fall through.

“I got one inside the hull, faint, and one inside the cockpit, but it’s far weaker than the one in the main body of the craft.”

“Thanks Kayo,” Scott gave her a half assuring smile. “ Stay on top here and keep an eye on all our cables. We’ll bring them to you and you take them up.”

“F.A.B. Scott.”

Scott indicated to his youngest sibling and both of them clambered down into the hold.  
“Grab the weakest signal first.” Kayo’s voice filtered through the helmet coms. “I have this feeling whoever sent that message isn’t going to be able to survive much longer.”

“F.AB. Kayo.” both Tracy’s responded. They felt their way around the hull and the yellow Thunderbird, glancing inside it first and confirming that indeed, someone was inside of it under what looked like a huge pile of blankets.

“We’ll have to come back, they should be alright to grab on the way out. That life sign in the cockpit isn’t going to keep up forever.”

“Right you are Scott.” Alan took a deep breath. “Please let them be ok.” he seemed to just pray out loud to anyone who would listen.

“I promise you Alan, they will be.”

They found Virgil in the main cockpit of the big ‘bird, pale, really flushed and unconscious.

“He’s freezing.” Alan had reached down and touched his older brother’s face. Scott checked the heart rate monitor in his brother’s suit and looked grave.

“He’s body temperature is way to low, his breathing and heart rate are far too slow.” he clicked the side of his helm to change frequencies. “John, turn the heating off on board Thunderbird one. Virgil’s critical and we can’t afford to send him into shock when we bring him up. Kayo, you need to stay with him once he’s up inside, he isn’t looking too good.”

“F.A.B Scott.” John radiod back along with Kayo.

Outside, Kayo looked up to see if she could still make out the grey Thunderbird in the total whitewash of sleet and snow. She could see the cables wavering and moving around violently further up and she knew something was going on high above her.

“John, how you holding up?”

“As good as I can. Don’t worry, she’ll hold steady…. I hope.”

A huge gust hit and Kayo almost got hit by the heavy cabling and she could feel the warmth of the thrusters of the grey Thunderbird far too close for comfort despite being unable to see.

“Watch it John! You could have fried me alive!”

“Sorry Kayo, I can’t see anything at all and the wind it causing it to spin in the air. Keeping level is one thing, still is quite another.”

“Scott, Alan, you better start getting a move on, we are starting to have problems of our own out here.”

“F.A.B Kayo, lower the cables, Virgil is on a stretcher and we are going to attach him to them now. Make sure he’s up safe.”

“F.A.B. Alan.” Kayo secured herself to a cable via her harness and when Virgil was lifted through she grabbed a hold of the stretcher to be pulled up into the whiteness of the storm.

“Right, Alan, let’s get Gordon out of Thunderbird four.” Scott got a nod from his little brother and both of them picked their way towards the rear of the submarine. Inside, the slightly warmer air was a welcome relief, and it was an even bigger one to find that Gordon was reasonably doing quite well and was only in first stage hypothermia, despite icicles forming in his blonde hair from how wet it had been. It was clear to both of them that Virgil had invested all his energy into trying to keep Gordon warm because he had clearly been affected by the cold first.

“Right, keep those blankets on, they’ll be far better than ours… plus it means we’ll be able to cover Virgil with the spares.”

“Right you are Scott.” Alan was laying open the other stretcher he had and was getting ready to help Scott transfer his other older sibling over. Unlike Virgil, Gordon was quite light despite his muscle mass because he was short.

“Ready? Ok, lift!”

They both lifted Gordon out as carefully as they could in the circumstances, Scott stepping out backwards and making sure he didn’t slip due to the angle they were on. They couldn’t afford him to twist his ankle or turn his knee out right about now, not when they were so close to getting the hell out of there.

“Ok, Gordon is secured, You go up with him Alan.”

“But what about you Scott?”

“I’ll be fine till you get to resend the cable back down. That way if anything happens I’ll be here to catch you.”

Alan snorted. “You're not my babysitter Scott. You never were.”

The older of the two gave a slight shrug. “Got me there, true enough. No the babysitter is flying the damn rescue machine.”

“John will kill you for that.” Alan shook his head smiling.

“No he won’t, he loves it when I rag on him.” Scott grinned.

“Unless you want your underwear glued to the ceiling when we get back home, I suggest you shut up now Scotty.” John’s voice cut in with a growl. “We can’t take much more of a battering so hurry up down there. We got hit by another wild one and it’s taken out one of the vertical thrusters. We hovering with only one functioning and it’s barely keeping us airborne!”

“F.A.B.” Scott looked at Alan and slapped his shoulder. “You heard your keeper.”

“Shut up Scott.”

***

Virgil stirred and rolled onto his side. Something smelled edible. He groaned as he opened his eyes and spotted a bowl of something sitting beside his bed. He was in his own bedroom back home. There was a little note propped up next to the bowl that had the words ‘chicken soup’ written on it in nice big friendly letters. Sluggishly he picked it up and smiled when he read the back.

‘John insisted, Grandma had absolutely no hand in making this whatsoever. We don’t want to poision you afterall.”

Damn you Alan and your silly little notes. Your as bloody bad as John leaving little memos around the place.

At least the soup smelled good. Hot and spicy too, just the way Virgil likes it. He wondered briefly if they could swap John and their grandmother around and make her live in space just so his brother could do all the cooking at home. Clearly his sibling was worried about him as it wasn’t something you got everyday anymore like when they were kids. There was times when he really did miss them all being at home together.

“Damn it Gordon! Don’t you ever wash you clothes? Seriously your whole room stinks!”

“I never asked you to bring me anything into my room Alan!”

“What’s with all these posters anyway? I thought you had it in for Lady Penelope?”

“Oh wow Gordon, You have more pin up girls in your bedroom than Scotty.”

“Shut up John! At least I don’t get off on pictures of galaxies!”

“I don't know how you can justify your porno posters against my pictures of distant undiscovered planets.”

“Just.. both of you get out of my room!”

Ok maybe occasionally he misses it. He definitely didn’t miss Gordon’s big mouth at any rate. Maybe he should have let him freeze. Sometimes Virgil wondered why he even bothered keeping an eye out for that brat.

Because, a little part of him said, he’s your brother and he always has your back.

“Knock knock!?”

Alan poked his head around the bedroom door of Virgil’s room. Unlike his other brothers, Virgil had the cleanest room, everything was painstakingly organised with the exception of his painting desk where supreme chaos reigned.

“How you doing in here Virge?” he asked rather cheerfully, but not as loud as he had been talking to Gordon a few minutes ago in the room nextdoor.

“I’ve been better.” Virgil pulled himself up slowly and indicated that it was ok for Alan to enter. Virgil’s room was a private respected sanctuary of zen properties that everyone always waited for permission to enter. It never used to be this way, but Virgil didn’t mind the change. To him it meant his brothers had a silent sense of respect for him and that was all well and good.

“How’s the feaver?”

“Still here, not as bad as it was yesterday.” Virgil tried to smile. He had managed to give himself a really awful flu that had taken a good week to become tolerable. His head still throbbed and he had flushes now and then, but it was better than having been frozen to death.

“I take it Gordo is walking around ok?”

“He wishes. He’s still running a high temperature according to John, but after the last few days, I think John’s happy to lie to him just to keep him in bed out the way.” Alan chuckled. “I honestly don’t know, he sounds right as rain to me…. But he is giving everyone the shits.”

“Since when doesn’t he Alan?”

“I know! Even when we told him what had happened he’s still insisting he is the hero of the hour. The only reason John’s helping look after him at all is because you can’t and Grandma doesn’t think it’s fair you get the extra brotherly dotting.”

“That is no surprise.” Virgil shook his head.

“Tried the soup yet? I made it.” Alan stood proudly. “Ok sure I’m not the greatest chef in the world, but I’ve had the best teachers.” he let out a sigh that sounded like a brief chuckle. “Ok so I was supervised. John was trying to cook and talk to Scott on the phone which is never a good idea. Scott makes John frustrated and it comes up in the food.”

“Oh? And where is Scott?”

“He’s with Kayo and Brains at the nearest Global Defence Force base. They had to get them to help them transport Thunderbird two and get it out of the snow. Once they get her running they’ll fly her back home. So I don’t quite know when she and Thunderbird four will be back in action.”

“So you and John are going to run the show for a while huh?” “I doubt it. I think we both have had enough of Thunderbird one to last a few months.” Alan said softly. “No any rescues will have to wait till Thunderbird two is up and running again; and that includes you too.”

“Is it ok to come in?”

“Sure John. Alan’s already in here.”

The older of the brothers stepped in, closing the door behind him. “Just want to take your temperature and give you some stuff for the fever if that’s alright?”

Virgil nodded. He didn’t mind if John fussed over him. His calm demeanour was far more tolerable than Scott’s and he didn’t force you to do things you didn’t feel up to like their grandmother. No Virgil didn’t mind at all. Even Alan’s company was fine right about now though he was always welcome being the baby in the family who worried about everyone no matter what was wrong.

Both of them held expressions that he knew he’d never see on anyone else, as the only other person who had that amount of love for fussing over them was gone a long time ago.

“Looks pretty good.” John seemed pretty happy with the thermometer result taken from under Virgil's arm. “You’ll be beating Gordon up in no time.”

“Was he trouble?”

John took a deep breath and held it. “You really want me to answer that? I’m surprised that you didn’t leave him there in all honesty.”

“Only did what you would have done.”

“Yeah, bigger fools we are.” John frowned, making Virgil smile. “The amount of times I’d have wished that pain in the arse had drowned…. I’d still be broke.”

“You couldn’t do it. None of us could.” Alan chuckled.

“Sadly we’re stuck with him the same way you are with us. Deal with it.” Virgil found his sense of humour coming back.

“Oh I wouldn’t say that… if I had to choose between you guys and Gordon to be trapped with, you know who I’d pick every time.”

“Yeah only because you’d snap and kill him first.”

“How are we related again?” John laughed and looked at Alan.

“You’re asking me that?” Alan looked innocent.

“Well if it wasn’t for the age difference you could be mistaken for twins.”

John sat down on the bed next to Vigil. “You would just LOVE that wouldn’t you?” he said sarcastically.

“One less little brother to worry about out there.” Virgil chuckled.

“No, just another older brother to spoil you stupid!” Alan also sat down, but with far more bounce on the end of the bed.

“When was the last time we were together just like this?” Virgil leaned into John’s shoulder.

“I can’t remember. Feels like forever.”

“Yesterday feels like forever these days everyday.”

“You two are just getting old.” Alan mused. He stretched and flopped backwards across the bed.

“Maybe.”

“Well, guess we better let you eat your soup. If you don’t Granma threatened to make your next meal and trust me after her pancakes this morning you won’t want to push your luck.” John patted his brother on the leg before shouldering him and standing.

“You didn’t eat them did you?”

“Heck no, but she will figure out why the house plant has died sooner or later.” John tapped Alan on the knee. “Come on we got things to do before she gets back home. I’m not wasting my afternoon mopping the floors again.”

Alan groaned as he sat up. “Don’t remind me. Grandma the slave driver.” John grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up, although Alan tripped over and the both landed on the floor. Virgil started to laugh. It felt so good to not feel pain in his chest. As always, the two of them knew exactly how to cheer him up and make him feel better, even if it wasn’t intentional.

Brothers, Virgil considered, are something he wouldn’t be complete without.


End file.
